Myocardial perfusion using cardiac magnetic resonance: Evidence of decreased global myocardial perfusion in patients with systemic sclerosis with possible gender differences

Background Significant cardiovascular mortality is reported in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) despite that there is moderate to no increase of signs of epicardial coronary artery disease. This could be due to reduced myocardial perfusion caused by microvascular disease. The quantitative extent of hypoperfusion in patients with SSc, however, is not known. Recently, general interest has emerged around possible gender influence in various cardiac pathologies and hence we performed a gender adjusted comparison in this study. The purpose of this study was therefore to quantitatively measure if patients with SSc have decreased global myocardial perfusion (MP) at rest and during adenosine stress in a gender adjusted cohort.